Summit Conference on ChemEd DL/ChemEd Research, July 11-15, 2011

Are you interested in developing online learning materials and evaluating their effectiveness? Join us for a week-long summit conference where you can interact with other two- and four-year college teachers and with experts on online learning and chemical education research. Everyone will collaborate on creating and assessing online lessons based on high-quality resources from the NSF-sponsored Chemical Education Digital Library (ChemEd DL, www.chemeddl.org ). Learn how your students can use animations, videos, and interactive computer resources as part of your curriculum and learn how to plan, execute, and analyze a chemical education research project to test how effectively these innovations improve student learning.

Intrigued? We invite you to be a part of this one-week NSF-sponsored workshop and its subsequent year-long support. The workshop is an activity of the Education Division of the American Chemical Society, the ChemEd DL (University of Wisconsin-Madison), and the Chemical Education Research team at The Catholic University of America (CUA). The program consists of a week-long residential workshop on CUA's campus (July 11-15, 2011) where you will work with ChemEd DL content/technical team headed by John Moore (University of Wisconsin-Madison) as well as the CUA chemical education research team headed by Diane M. Bunce (Associate Editor for Chemical Education Research in the Journal of Chemical Education). There will be continuing support/consultation during the 2011-2012 school year from the chemical education research team at CUA to aid in development and implementation of your evaluation plan.

Goal 1. You will create new learning materials for your classes using ChemEd DL resources. Prior to applying for the workshop, check out the broad range of high quality digital resources in ChemEd DL so that you have a better idea of the tools and resources that you might use. Here are some:

Models 360, a collection of molecular structures that can display structure, symmetry, vibrations, and molecular orbitals;

Periodic Table Live!, an interactive, pedagogically designed periodic table that includes graphing properties and sorting properties in a table;

ChemPRIME, an online textbook that provides exemplars of how chemistry topics apply to other disciplines and to everyday life;

ChemPaths, a tool for integrating ChemPRIME content into a course by selecting chapters and sections of the online textbook and presenting them in a desired order;

JCE QBank, a collection of assessment questions that can be delivered in online courses;

ChemEd Courses, a Moodle server hosted by ChemEd DL that can be used by anyone to design and present online courses.

We will show you more during the workshop, but think now about how you would use these and other resources to create learning materials for your students. For example, you might develop a new way to teach VSEPR theory and molecular structure using the interactive 3-D molecules in Models 360. What topic would you like to enhance using online resources? How would your students learn that topic differently? What combination of resources would help them to do so? The application form will ask you to describe how you think your curriculum could be improved by using online materials, what topic you would like to address, and what kinds of resources you would like to use to help students learn the topic.

The workshop will provide dedicated time for you to learn to use tools and resources to create your own classroom materials. ChemEd DL staff will be available to assist you as you combine tools and resources into learning units. It is expected that you will share materials you create with others through the ChemEd DL and use the materials in your classes during the 2011-2012 academic year.

Goal 2. You will develop a chemical education research plan to evaluate the new learning materials you are creating. Experts in chemical education research will assist you in all stages of a chemical education research (CER) project:

formulation of a viable research question

development of a strong methodology based upon learning theory

construction of needed instruments to collect data

data analysis including the appropriate qualitative or quantitative tools

formulation of conclusions.

Logistics. Participants will be selected for the workshop on the basis of the quality of their plans for learning innovations and how well those plans fit with the overall make-up of workshop participants. The costs of room and board for the week-long workshop (July 11-15, 2011) will be covered for all accepted participants. Single rooms will be provided in one of the Catholic University's air-conditioned residence halls. Participants are responsible for their own transportation and costs to and from Washington, DC. Parking is available on the CUA campus for a fee of $35 during the week of the workshop. Participants arriving from area airports have a number of options for getting to CUA campus. For more information visit http://www.cua.edu/about-cua/directions.cfm

Submit Your Application Now! Teachers at 2- and 4-year colleges and universities are preferred. High school teachers, post-docs, and graduate students may be accepted if space allows. Acceptance will be on a rolling basis pending review by the workshop leaders until 15 participants have been admitted. To apply, complete the application form at http://www.jotform.com/form/10883911870. You will be notified of acceptance no later than June 1st.